Reaper Red
by captain20america
Summary: Ruby in Sword Art Online under the alias of "Rose."
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN RWBY, WHICH IS OWNED BY ROOSTER TEETH, NOR SWORD ART ONLINE, WHICH IS OWNED BY REKI KAWAHARA..

Sword Art Online, a couple of weeks back, the game was amazing. A few years ago, experts dismissed the idea of virtual reality with the wave of the hand. But now, it is very real … and very scary. You see, Sword Art Online is a game, but it's not something you play. This is life and death, just like Kyaba said. But I'm going to do it. I'm going to beat it. Everyone will know Rose as the saviour of Sword Art Online.

I remember the first day this game became life and death. Actually, it was the first day the game became available to the public at large, beta testers such as myself not included. I had been anxiously waiting for it to start again ever since the beta ended. I logged on with the now familiar "Link Start" 5 minutes early, counting down the seconds till the start time. I was using my character from the beta test, Rose, albeit with starter stats and gear.

When the virtual clock struck 10, I was transported into the town of beginnings from the beta. I hurriedly rushed out towards the fields where I knew to be low level monsters. As I was rushing through an alley, I was stopped by a "hey." I turned to face the direction it came from and saw a muscular, dirty-blonde guy jogging after me.

"Hey, you look like you doing. Were you in the beta?" he asked

"Yeah," I said warily.

"This is my first time doing a full dive. Could you teach me some tricks?" he asked.

"I guess," I said, taken aback by his bluntness.

"Great!" he said, "the name's Jaune."

"Rose," I replied in kind.

"Uhhh"

"You're doing it wrong," I said.

"Easy for you to say," he replied, "he's a slippery fellow, all moving around and such."

"Well he's not a training dummy," I said, slightly exasperated at the tall blonde, "of course he's going to move around."

The "he" we were currently referring to was a level one boartusk, hardly a dangerous foe. Yet, Jaune's aura, hit points, had fallen into the red zone.

"You just have to use your sword skills properly. Just get in the proper form, and let it explode. The system will do the rest," I explained.

"Let it explode," he muttered to himself, "right. HYAH!"

He finally got the right motion and flew at the boartusk, killing it in a blur of light.

"Yes!" he cried, elated that he had finally slain his foe.

"Good job," I congratulated him, "but you do know that that was a really weak grimm, right?"

"R-r-r-really," he stammered, "I thought it was some sort of mid-level boss."

"Nope," I laughed, "boartusks are like slimes from other rpgs. You've got a long way to go before you can defeat a boss."

"Man," he said, defeated, "here I was thinking that I had done something impressive."

"It's nothing to sneeze at," I consoled him, "it is your first time playing after all."

"Yeah, I guess. HA! HYAH!"

Jaune was testing his sword skills out, a euphoric look upon his face as though Christmas had come early, which I supposed it really had for him.

"It really is amazing, isn't it," said Jaune.

"Yeah," I agreed, as we gazed at the radiant view, "it really is."

"It's just so awesome. I dreamed of this ever since the nerve gear came out, but this … it's even better than I imagined."

"Yeah," I intoned, "I thought I would eventually tire of it, but it still manages to amaze me, the life likeness of it all."

"Yeah."

"Yeah. So … you ready to go back to hunting?"

"Well," said Jaune, "I would love to … but I've got to go. Maybe we can do this again tomorrow. And you can meet my friends and everything ... "

He stopped at the sight of my face, which had turned dark.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," said Jaune, picking up on my hesitancy, "you've already helped me out a lot. Let's just do this some other time. Now, I've got a piping hot pizza waiting for me at home, so goodbye."

I turned to go to continue hunting on till the middle of the night, forgoing dinner. Then my world was changed with a simple sentence by Jaune.

"I can't log out."

"What?" I exclaimed, "but that's a key feature. Are you sure you're just not missing it in the menu?" I asked while opening up my own menu. But when I got to where it usually was, the logout button was gone.

"I'm calling the GM," said Jaune, "but no one's picking up."

"This is bad," I said, starting to hyperventilate, "this is oh so bad. If I can't logout I can't see Yang or Dad, or feed Zwei, or go to school."

"Whoa Rose," said Jaune, "cool down. We'll get out of here somehow. It's probably just a glitch. They'll have it fixed in no time."

"Yeah," I said, calming down, "you're right. It'll all be fixed in no time."

As though the mighty Oum was laughing at me, the teleportation animation appeared around me and I found myself in the town square of the town of beginnings. I looked around and saw that we were not the only ones that had been forced-teleported. I eventually turned my attention to the sky, where I saw a red blinking hexagon. I was barely make out the words "System Announcement" inscribed on it. I pointed it out to Jaune. Then, before we could even say anything, more hexagons spread out of it, encasing us in the starting square. As soon as that was finished, my attention was drawn back to the original hexagon which was pouring out blood. Except … the blood was coalescing into a person, a GM! _He's going to fix all this! That's why we were teleported here!_

"Welcome to my world," said the mysterious GM after he formed, "welcome … to Sword Art Online!"

 _Wait, "my world," then that means …_

"I am Kayaba Akihiko. I created this world. But not for no purpose was it made. I made it so that I could rule over it, and that purpose has been achieved" declared the self proclaimed god, "many of you have now noticed that there is no longer a logout button. This is not a mistake, but rather a key feature of Sword Art Online. Should you family attempt to ignore the warning that is displayed on your Nerve Gear, then the Nerve Gear will fry your brain. Currently, 203 people have died to this."

"NO!"

"203!"

"It can't be!"

"But it can," I whispered to Jaune, who had yelled the latest comment, "the Nerve Gear uses waves similar to microwaves to scan the brain."

"Don't worry about this happening though," said Kyaba, "the story has been spread by authorities and people have been warned about this. What you need to worry about is the second part of my message. Being unplugged is not the only way to die, as many of you have already guessed. Should your aura drop to zero, you will be erased from existence, both in this world and the outside one."

At that moment I lost myself to visions of various monsters killing me, my aura indicator dropping zero, my body exploding into crystals, the way someone died in this world.

"However, there is still a way for you to get home," said Kyaba, suddenly bringing me back to reality, "All you have to do is beat the boss on every floor and conquer Castle Remnant. Do so and you, all of you will be logged out of Sword Art Online."

"Beat the game?! That's Crazy!"

"Is it even possible," whispered Jaune to me, "can it even be beaten."

"I don't know," I whispered back, "I don't know."

"However, that was not my conclusion," declared Kayaba, "no, I have one last parting gift that each and every one of you will find in their inventory. I suggest you take it out."

I went into my inventory and found the item. _Mirror?_ I thought as I materialized it. Suddenly I was caught up in blue flames. As they fell away, I looked around. The scene around me was radically different. Instead of the stylized heroes that had stood steps away from me, gamers of all kinds now littered my vision. It was quite obvious that most of them had cheated in the height and weight department. I could almost feel the ground sagging with the newfound weight. It was also apparent that many of them had been playing as girls, wearing skirts and dresses. I eventually came around to a scraggly, blonde teenager. If it weren't for his gear I wouldn't have recognized him.

"Jaune?!"

"Rose?! You're just a teen?" exclaimed Jaune incredulously, "It's just the way you act is so … mature."

"That doesn't matter now," I said, skipping over the issue, "what matters now is where do we go from here. I know a route from here to the next town, and even though we're low level, I can get us there safely."

" … I would Rose," said Jaune, " but I can't just leave my friends behind. I'm going to stick back and take charge. I was a guild leader in the last game, so I guess I'll lead them in this one. Just promise me one thing, Rose, don't die. Don't die until I can properly thank you on the other side."

"I won't," I promised.

And then, I left.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. It is owned by Rooster Teeth and was created by Monty Oum, may he rest in peace. I do not own Sword Art Online. It is owned and was created by Reki Kawahara.**

Over 2,000 players died in the first month. We hadn't even cleared the first floor and that many people had died. However, hope springs eternal. Yesterday, there had been people shouting out that there was to be meeting about beating the first floor boss. Apparently it was going to be led by a guy named Diavel. I suspected that they had found the boss room. _Which means that this meeting is probably to figure out some sort of strategy_ , I thought to myself, _I should probably go. It might be worth my time._

"Hello!" shouted a man in his early twenties, "my name is Diavel and I have exciting news. My party found the boss room while hunting yesterday. As such, we would like to form a raiding party to take on the boss."

There was a silence, then, at the intensity of a tsunami, the crowd cheered at this exciting development. I myself felt like joining in, but stopped myself. _Just because they found the boss room doesn't mean that we can conquer the boss,_ I thought, bringing myself down back to reality, _even if we do, there will be casualties._

"Right," said Diavel after the cheering died down, "so let's get down to business does-"

But before he could finish, he was interrupted by a tall, well-built mace wielder.

"I want something first," he exclaimed rudely.

"Excuse you?"

"I want all the traitors in the crowd to come up here and apologize for what they did!" yelled the tall man.

 _Traitors,_ I thought, _does he mean .. ?_

"I assume you mean the old beta-testers, Mr. … " inquired Diavel

"Cardinal. And you'd be right. Those beta-testers left us all us normal people on our own. They were even bold enough to take all the good hunting grounds, shamelessly taking all the lien and experience."

"Are you done?" questioned a voice that seemed awfully familiar to me, "If so, listen up. Do you know what this is?"

The now apparent figure of my older half-sister held up what appeared to be a tattered, well read pocket-book, though, being in a virtual world it was probably just made to look as such.

"This is a well researched guide book, _**put together by beta testers**_. Its free in all the shops and is even at the top of the sale items. Everyone who died had a chance to read it, but some still died. It's your own fault if you don't read it, so stop your whining."

"And on that note," said Diavel, obviously trying to bring the attention back to himself and the topic at hand, "let's get back to why we gathered here in the first place, defeating the boss. Now, the guide book pointed out by that helpful lady says that the 1st floor boss, the Boarbatusk Herder, has a bunch of minions. The guide suggests that to keep the minions off of the main task force that is taking on the boss, smaller groups should be made and should agro minions and draw them away. So, let's all just group up and then we'll figure out what everyone will do."

All throughout this speech, I had been inching towards my sister, wondering how exactly I should great her. I hadn't known that she had even bought a copy of the game. She must have wanted to surprise me, but then why hadn't she contacted me earlier? _She has her reasons_ , I thought to myself.

"Nice speech," I whispered into my sister's ear.

"Thanks," she said back, catching me off guard, "I spotted you while I was on stage, but didn't want to make a scene. But seriously, you won't believe how worried I've been about you? I knew you were somewhere in here, but I didn't know your username, so I didn't know how to find you. I did figure that you would be grinding, considering how much you loved playing during the beta. I remember that time you pulled an all-nighter to play."

"Yeah," I said, "but I'm not playing now. This may be a game, but it's not something you play. Anyway, how'd you even get a copy of the game, you didn't wait in line, did you?"

"Yep," said Yang, "I did. It was supposed to be a token of sisterly love, although I think it really turned into more than that, hasn't it."

"Yeah," I agreed, "by the way, what's your name?"

"You've lived with me for how long?"

"I mean your game name, idiot!"

"Oh, yeah, about that ... "

"Yang Xiao-Long," I said in my most threatening voice that my mom used when she was angry at us, "what did you name yourself."

"What's in a name," my sister tried to dodge.

"What. Did. You. Name. Your. Self."

"Bombshell"

"Don't be too hard on her, at least it doesn't have any cuss words in it like some other players," said a soft voice to my right.

A slender brunette with a bow stood next to me. She had snuck up on me so silently that I hadn't noticed, and that was no simple task. As a solo player, or at least a solo player up until now, I had to level up my Search skill, so as not to be ambushed by monsters. The skill also worked upon players, so the woman must have worked extremely hard to level up her hide skill. _She must be going for a ninja build_ , I thought in awe.

"Aw, I was just getting to you," said "Bombshell" (I still couldn't get over that name), "Rubes, this is my teammate, Belle. Belle, this is my little sister Rub - "

"Rose!" I interrupted my sister. I hissed at her, "don't use my real name, we're in a game, remember."

"Fine," said Yang, exasperated, "this is my sister, _Rose_. Anyway," she said, turning to me, "Belle and I have grouped up. You should join our party, at least for the boss fight."

"I'm fine with partnering with you and Belle. I've spent the last month going solo only because I don't know anybody who could really take care of themselves. Belle here has already proved her skills to me, and well, you're you," I explained.

"Great!" exclaimed my sister, "then let's go do something and rest up for tomorrow. We'll be sure to defeat the boss easily."

How wrong we were proven to be.


End file.
